Digest year-ender for domestic stories for month of December, 2018

Digest year-ender for domestic stories for month of December, 2018

Press Trust of India

Dec 1: Kohima: Nagaland Saturday became the first state in the Northeast and second in the country after Himachal Pradesh to launch a pan-India single-number emergency mobile application which will have a special women safety feature for immediate assistance from police and volunteers.

Dec 2: Bhubaneswar: The Odisha police has sounded a high alert and stepped up combing operations in the naxal-hit areas of the state as the Maoists started observing People's Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) Week from Sunday, a police official said.

Dec 3: New Delhi: The Indian Navy is looking at inducting 56 warships and submarines and the process for bringing in a third aircraft carrier has been moved, Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba said Monday, vowing to enhance the force's maritime capability.

Dec 4: New Delhi: Christian Michel James, the alleged middleman in politically-sensitive Rs 3,600-crore Agusta Westland chopper deal, was brought to India late Tuesday night following his extradition by the UAE, the CBI said.

Dec 5: Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Wednesday expectedly kept interest rates unchanged but held out a promise to cut them if the upside risks to the inflation do not materialise.

Dec 6: New Delhi: Observing that the "essence" of every government action must be in the interest of the institution, the Supreme Court Thursday asked the Centre and the CVC what was the "grave exigency" that prompted the "overnight" decision to divest Alok Verma of his powers as CBI Director over his bitter feud with Special Director Rakesh Asthana.

Dec 7: New Delhi: A voter turnout of 72.62 per cent was recorded in the assembly elections in Rajasthan on Friday while in Telangana, the figure was 67 per cent, the Election Commission said.

Dec 8: Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government has transferred Bulandshahr SSP Krishna Bahadur Singh to the DGP office here, five days after two people, including an inspector, were killed in violence following an alleged cow slaughter incident.

Dec 9: New Delhi: Stepping up pressure on the government to enact a legislation for the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya, the VHP on Monday put on a massive show of strength in the capital where RSS leader Suresh 'Bhaiyyaji' Joshi made a veiled attack at the BJP for not fulfilling its poll promise on the temple issue.

Dec 10: New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday told an all-party meet that the government was ready to discuss all issues of national importance in the Winter session of Parliament as the Congress asserted that the opposition will press for a JPC probe into the Rafale jet deal.

Dec 11: New Delhi: Former bureaucrat Shaktikanta Das was Tuesday named the new governor of the Reserve Bank of India after Urjit Patel abruptly resigned amid a face-off with the government over issues related to governance and autonomy of the central bank.

Dec 12: New Delhi: The BJP may have lost three key states to Congress, but its vote share has not shifted entirely to the grand old party as some other players have reaped the gains.

Dec 13: Bhopal/New Delhi: Congress on Thursday night named veteran leader Kamal Nath as Madhya Pradesh's next Chief Minister after marathon consultations by the party chief Rahul Gandhi with senior leaders including Sonia Gandhi, even as hectic parleys continued for the other two newly-won states Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.

Dec 14: New Delhi/Jaipur: The Congress on Friday named Ashok Gehlot Rajasthan's next chief minister and Sachin Pilot his deputy after party president Rahul Gandhi brokered peace between the veteran leader and his younger colleague over several rounds of discussions lasting more than two days. Dec 15: Srinagar: Seven civilians died Saturday when security forces opened fire at an unruly mob that thronged the site of an encounter in south Kashmir's Pulwama district in which three terrorists and an army man were killed, police said.

Dec 16: Rae Bareli, Allahabad (UP): In his first public outburst against the Congress after the Rafale deal verdict, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday alleged the party was trying to project Supreme Court as a "liar" and was letting down the defence forces.

Dec 17: Jaipur/Bhopal/Raipur: Three Congress chief ministers on Monday took oath of office in three previously BJP-ruled Hindi heartland states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh with most of the opposition leaders present in the swearing-in ceremonies that also turned into a show of unity against the saffron party.

Dec 18: Attari (Amritsar): A software engineer from Mumbai, who had spent around six years in a Pakistan jail, was reunited with his family after he returned to India through the Attari-Wagah border on Tuesday evening.

Dec 19: New Delhi: Demanding resignation of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, 83 former civil servants -- including ex-foreign secretaries Shyam Saran and Shivsankar Menon -- have written an open letter criticising the central and the state governments for their alleged failure in acting against the killers of a police officer in Bulandshahr.

Dec 20: New Delhi: Seasoned diplomat Harsh Vardhan Shringla was Thursday appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the US, considered a high-profile posting where he will face the task of engaging with the Trump administration on a number of key issues including the H1B visa.

Dec 21: New Delhi: Members of the Lok Sabha's Rules Committee on Friday deliberated on "automatic suspension" of MPs who enter the well of the house or willfully obstruct its business by shouting slogans despite being repeatedly warned by the Chair.

Dec 22: New Delhi: Former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar moved the Supreme Court challenging the life imprisonment awarded to him by the Delhi High Court in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.

Dec 23: New Delhi: Amid reports that the SP and the BSP might leave the Congress out from an alliance in Uttar Pradesh, senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid said Sunday if his party is excluded from the coalition in the state, any nationwide anti-BJP front will be "weakened" and it may lead to a "stillborn situation". Dec 24: Jaipur: Seeking to balance caste and regional factors, the Rajasthan cabinet was Monday expanded with as many as 23 ministers - 13 cabinet and 10 ministers of state - being sworn in, a week after chief minister Ashok Gehlot and deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot took oath. Dec 25: New Delhi: Flight operations were partially suspended at the Delhi airport on Tuesday due to low visibility conditions as departures were put on hold and more than 80 flights were delayed, an official said.

Dec 26: New Delhi: Putting in place his team for steering the BJP's campaign in the Lok Sabha polls, party president Amit Shah Wednesday appointed in-charges for 17 states, drafting in Union minister Prakash Javadekar for Rajasthan and Thawarchand Gehlot, another minister, for Uttarakhand. Dec 27: New Delhi: Second time in less than one year, the contentious triple talaq bill criminalising instant divorce by Muslim men was passed by Lok Sabha after a heated debate on Thursday, with the government projecting it as a matter of "Insaaniyat aur insaaf" for Muslim women, and rejecting the contention that it was aimed at targeting a particular community.

Dec 28: New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday announced a Rs 4,500-crore financial assistance to Bhutan to help the country implement its 12th five-year plan, after he held wide-ranging talks with his Bhutanese counterpart Lotay Tshering.

Dec 29: New Delhi: A Delhi court hearing the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper case on Saturday imposed restrictions on alleged middleman Christian Michel meeting his lawyers in ED custody after the agency said that he was misusing legal access by passing chits to the advocates asking them how to tackle questions on "Mrs Gandhi".

Dec 30: Kolkata: Dadasaheb Phalke award-winning film director Mrinal Sen, the last of the triumvirate of directing icons, including Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak, passed away on Sunday. He was 95.

(Source PTI)